The Week in Robotics
This week in robotics — sourced, verified, and put in context against our index of 3,727 robots.
Boots on the Ground
DEPLOYMENT
Via TechCrunchNevada approves Tesla, Uber, Waymo permits for up to 8,000 robotaxis in Clark County
The Nevada Transportation Authority unanimously approved permits Thursday allowing Tesla, Uber, and Waymo to run commercial robotaxi services in Clark County, home to Las Vegas, with a combined ceiling of up to 8,000 vehicles over the next 12 months.
Tesla's permit caps at 5,000 vehicles, Waymo's at 1,000, and Uber's at 1,000, the latter to be operated through partnerships with Motional and Zoox. Tesla's Cybercab chief engineer Eric Early said the company does not expect to hit its ceiling, estimating it would be satisfied reaching roughly 2,500 vehicles in the next year.
Local taxi operators, represented by the Livery Operators Association, opposed the permits, citing oversaturation of the transportation industry and overcrowding of roadways in the Golden Triangle area near the airport and Las Vegas Boulevard.
Via Unite.AIRobot.com Signs Seven-Year Sodexo Deal, Its Largest Enterprise Deployment
Robot.com has signed a seven-year commercial agreement with Sodexo to expand autonomous delivery across Sodexo-operated college campuses in North America, extending a partnership that began in 2021 and adding a new robot-carried advertising layer, branded R-ads, to the existing delivery fleet.
The deal continues use of Robot.com's Level 4 R-kiwi sidewalk robots, which the company lists with a 12-hour battery and 19-liter cargo compartment, on Sodexo-managed campuses. Sodexo, which the article says serves 80 million consumers daily, was also an early investor in Kiwibot (Robot.com's prior name), joining a roughly $7.5 million pre-Series A round in 2022.
Robot.com says it has deployed more than 500 robots across the US, Canada, Dubai and MENA and completed over 2.5 million tasks. A 2022 expansion of the earlier Kiwibot-Sodexo contract had targeted more than 1,200 robots across 50 US college campuses.
Via New AtlasDubai's VDX becomes world's first certified commercial eVTOL vertiport
Dubai's VDX vertiport, developed by Skyports Infrastructure with the Roads and Transport Authority, has received regulatory certification from the UAE's General Civil Aviation Authority to operate eVTOL aircraft, making it what its developers call the world's first purpose-built commercial vertiport.
VDX will serve as the hub of Dubai's planned Air Taxi network, with additional vertiports under development around the city. Joby Aviation, which signed an exclusive deal for the Dubai market in 2024, will supply and manage the flying taxi fleet, with commercial launch targeted for 2026.
Via The Robot ReportAmazon to expand Prime Air drone delivery to nearly 500 U.S. cities by end of 2026
Amazon said this week it plans to expand its Prime Air drone delivery service to nearly 500 cities and towns in the U.S. by the end of 2026, calling it a sixfold increase from its current footprint. The service currently operates in cities across seven states, including Arizona, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, and Texas.
Amazon plans to launch soon in the Chicago, Syracuse, Cleveland, Atlanta, and Boise metro areas, with more communities to follow later this year. The company also recently launched Prime Air in Darlington, U.K., its first market outside the U.S., where customers within a 7.5-mile radius of the fulfillment center are eligible for drone delivery.
Prime Air can deliver items up to 5 lb. that fit in a large shoebox, with more than 60% of Amazon's most frequently purchased items eligible, according to the company. Deliveries can arrive in as fast as 30 minutes, with most orders arriving around 60 minutes after checkout.
Follow the Money
INVESTMENT
Via The Robot ReportUnitree's Shanghai IPO closes up 460%, raising $905M; analysts weigh commercial gaps
Unitree Robotics debuted on Shanghai's STAR Market this week, closing its first trading day 460% higher and raising 6.1 billion yuan (around $905 million) in its IPO, which the company says makes it the first major legged robotics company to go public.
Unitree grew from selling just five humanoids in 2023 to 5,215 in 2025, but around 70% of those went to universities and research institutions rather than commercial customers. The company posted a profit of around $41 million in 2025, up from $14 million in 2024 and a $1.6 million loss in 2023.
By comparison, rival UBTech, which went public in Hong Kong in 2023, lost around $104 million last year and sold 1,079 humanoid robots in 2025. Meanwhile, U.S. humanoid maker Agility is reportedly pursuing a SPAC deal valuing it at a $2.5 billion pre-money equity valuation.
Via TechCrunchCastelion raises $1B Series C at $13B valuation for hypersonic missiles
Castelion, a missile startup founded by former SpaceX executives, has raised a $1 billion Series C at a $13 billion valuation, co-led by Andreessen Horowitz, Carlyle, and JPMorgan Chase.
The Torrance, California-based startup, founded in 2022, will use the capital to produce its Blackbeard hypersonic missiles and other weapons at its New Mexico production facility. It has already secured more than $500 million in U.S. military contracts.
Via The Robot ReportSoftBank invests $200M in Gravis Robotics' Series A for autonomous construction
Gravis Robotics, a Zurich-based startup spun out of ETH Zurich in 2022, announced that SoftBank is investing $200 million in its Series A round, which the company claimed is the largest in construction robotics history.
Gravis retrofits excavators and other heavy equipment from manufacturers including Caterpillar, Case, Develon, John Deere, JCB, Hitachi, Sumitomo, Yanmar and Volvo with its Gravis Rack autonomous control kit, using AI world models trained on simulated data to bridge the sim-to-real gap for unpredictable jobsite conditions.
The company said it has already deployed its systems across four continents, and was recently chosen to lead an $8 million U.K. government-backed CAM Pathfinder project with Flannery Plant Hire, the country's largest equipment rental provider.